Indigenous Archaeology

Indigenous archaeology is a form of archaeology where indigenous peoples are involved in the care of, excavation and analysis of the cultural and bodily remains of their ancestors. Largely being developed as a sub-discipline of archaeology in the late twentieth century, it was developed in order to help redress some of the historical inequalities that have resulted from the traditional academic practice of archaeology, whereby archaeologists who were not members of the indigenous group had been responsible for the excavation and care of such remains, often ignoring the wishes and sensibilities of their descendents. In this manner, the Indigenous desire to participate in the research and management of their heritage is in part a response to "intellectual and spiritual colonization" by Europeans throughout the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.

Being a relatively recently formed variety of archaeology, the "tenets and practices of Indigenous archaeology are currently being defined", and as a sub-discipline it is "unavoidably pluralistic, contingent, and emergent". The Indigenous archaeological spectrum ranges from Indigenous peoples being merely consulted about archaeological research on the terms of non-Native researchers to instances of Native-designed and directed exploration of their own heritage. The explosion of development-related cultural resources management (CRM) archaeology has been the necessary impetus to get many Aboriginal organizations involved in translating their archaeological values into heritage management plans that supplant the colonial status quo. Beyond field-based applications, Indigenous archaeology can also be seen as a political statement with the means of empowering Indigenous peoples as they work toward decolonization of society in general and of archaeology in particular. However, it has brought controversy amongst much of the archaeological community, who while typically supporting it in principle, believe that the involvement of certain indigenous viewpoints has led to "major constraints on the research" of historical indigenous peoples.